Join us to celebrate the Solstice and Ringing in Free Speech with our friends of Channel 17/ Town Meeting Television, CCTV, and Common Good Vermont on Thursday, December 14th from 5 - 7 p.m. at Channel 17 Studios.

Jeff Chester, Director of the Center for Digital Democracy and national advocate for media justice, joins us on Thursday, November 9th at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall in Burlington, VT for a provocative and timely talk about how Big Data threatens to change Politics and Democracy forever and what we can do to stop it. The event begins at 5.30 with a reception, followed by the Public Talk at 6 p.m. ending at 8 p.m. REGISTER TODAY

If you’re like most people in the U.S., you’ve never heard of Section 702. It’s a little known surveillance law that is part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Section 702 permits the government to collect the content of communications of “targets” who are “non-Americans” located abroad, including communications they may have with Americans. The short version is this: Section 702 has loopholes that expand state surveillance of both immigrant and citizen people of color.

Burlington is winnowing down prospective purchasers for Burlington Telecom. The City Council will decide on October 16 with public meetings scheduled in the next few weeks. Review the proposals and share your comments.

“Years of hard work by community member volunteers on the BTAB, the Mayor and many on the City Council have put us in a place few thought we would ever reach when the magnitude of BT’s financial crisis became clear in 2009 – with an opportunity to recoup a substantial portion of the money taxpayers lost years ago, preserve for the long run the new BT’s ability to compete against Comcast or any other monopoly, finish the build out of our City so Burlington residents have an opportunity to enjoy the service it provides, and commit substantial new revenues to support the local tech economy, and to possibly retain a local voice through an equity stake in the ‘new’ BT.

Over the past two weeks, the Mayor and I have been working to craft a process forward for the sale of BT. We are here today to announce the result of that work, and to lay out the key elements of a process that is transparent, that provides for public participation, and that adds an independent review of the bidders and their proposals.

In its continued fight against free speech and open networks, Comcast has filed a federal suit against the Vermont Public Utility Commission (Vermont PUC) for seeking to modernize public access and extend cable service in Vermont.

...it matters that Comcast is isolating Vermont with substandard technology. Comcast says that subscribers don’t want to pay extra for good quality (HD) access channels and that the interactive program guide is off limits to Vermont communities. Oddly enough, Comcast has agreed to provide all of these features in cities across the country, including Philadelphia and Seattle.